The invention pertains to an animal waste pickup device that can be used in an easy procedure and in a completely sanitary manner. Pet owners and other observers are quite familiar with city, county, and other local ordinances that require pet owners, who take their pets for walks, to pick up the pet's or animal's droppings such as feces to keep the environment in a sanitary condition. This ordinance, including common sense, applies to public properties as well as private properties. With the increased public concern over sanitation and a cleaner environment, many municipalities have required that dog owners clean up after the animals have defecated on public properties. Although this is more pleasant for the public, it leaves the dog owner with an extremely unpleasant task. Many different scooping devices have been provided to hold open a bag while the feces are scraped or scooped therein. Various devices are known to accomplish the above mandate. It is known to use plastic gloves that are worn on a hand which simply pick up the droppings and by inverting the glove or by simply stripping the glove off the hand to invert the same, the dropping can be disposed of in a sanitary manner. Others simply carry a small bucket or similar container to accomplish the same task as noted above. Then there are other more complicated devices which accomplish the pick up and disposal of animal droppings in a completely sanitary manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,097,082 to Orofino describes a device which accomplishes the above noted task. The implement described in this patent consists of an elastomeric band to automatically close over the mouth of a flexible wrapper which is operated by two side plates that will swing inwardly at their bottom to thereby grab the flexible wrapper having the animal dropping therein, to keep it therein and to thereafter dispose of the same, all in a sanitary manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,537 to Kiemer shows a similar device. This patent discloses a device which also uses a pair of jaws that are pivotally attached to one end of a long handle. An elongate sleeve is connected to the jaws around the handle. When the jaws are locked open, a bag clip engages the closed end of an ordinary thin plastic bag while the open end of the bag is inverted over the edges of the jaws. To pick up the dog feces, the user positions the bag over the waste, makes the jaws to contact with the ground, rotates the sleeve to unlock a sliding motion and moves the sleeve downward on the handle. This closes the jaws and encloses the waste within the bag to be disposed of at a later time and in a sanitary manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,305,322 to Patel (the inventor herein) discloses a waste pickup device with a cross of flexible material at one end of a handle. The cross with claws thereon will accept a sheet of paper. When the device is used to pick up animal droppings, the cross with its claws is placed over the animal waste and then the cross is pulled back into a sleeve at the lower end of a handle and as the cross collapses into the sleeve, the waste is picked up and disappears into the sleeve to be disposed of.
U.S. Patent Publication 2008/0042456 publishes an application by Patel (the inventor herein). This disclosure describes a device which comprises a handle having triggers at the upper end of the handle to operate elements at the lower end of the handle. The elements at the lower end consist of a pair of outer clam shells which are opened or closed from the triggers at the upper end. The outer clam shells have located therein a second pair of claim shells having central openings therein. The second pair of clam shells is always biased into an open position and is operated in conjunction with the operation of the first or outer clam shells. The second pair is rotated within the first pair by an electric motor to twist a paper bag into a pile once the pet waste has been trapped therein.